Salesforce for Google AdWords is a popular and fairly new component for Salesforce’s marketing users. This feature now allows marketing folks to track their AdWords campaigns within Salesforce so people can tie leads to their sales. But what if you’re just starting to advertise online?

When dealing with smaller businesses, I find that while many are very savvy with Google Adwords and understand how important it is to have a search engine marketing (SEM) strategy, there are still many out there that are only beginning to grasp their need to play in this game. In this post, I want to tell those of you new to SEM where to go to get smarter on this.

Trust me, there are lots of real experts out there in this new and evolving field. But there are also lots of hucksters out there that know only what they know by keeping up on the latest forum discussions on particular sites. So how do you know who’s a real expert? Be a smart shopper and first understand the basics. And learn about the basics from the vendors that have it in their best interest to educate you so you place quality advertisements on their network. The example I’ll use today is Google, especially since that’s where I naturally go for my searches, and of course, that’s the one associated with that Salesforce product. 😉

The Google AdWords Learning Center offers short introductory training videos to help you understand what they do, why you need it, and how to get set up.

Now that you’re getting the gist of this world, check out the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), that is a non-profit group that’s provided a lot of introductory materials to make sure people get educated on the right way to do SEM. (Yes, Virginia, there is a shady way to do it but you’re more honorable than that, I hope! Plus, ways that you think are legit may no longer be in this fast-moving world where 12-month old theories may no longer hold true.)